A friend of a friend put the LAGP in touch with the landlord of a small Sherman Oaks apartment complex. The landlord was perplexed by tenants repeatedly moving out of a specific second floor unit. The two women who had been living there last broke their lease and moved out suddenly in mid-January, insisting that the apartment was haunted. They reported hearing footsteps and a male voice speaking their names, objects moving from where they had been placed and an overall feeling of a negative presence. On the initial visit, Tyler spoke with a neighbor in the building, who told him that anyone who lives in the apartment always ends up talking about ghosts and strange things happening. This man said he had heard a rumor of someone dying in the apartment below years ago and wondered if somehow this death was connected to the unit upstairs. The next day, January 31, 2012, we headed over around 9pm to see what evidence we might find of the haunting.

The apartment was upstairs at the very back of the building with its own staircase. There was a small studio unit below, as well as several parking spaces and the laundry room. We did notice a huge hole in the ceiling of the laundry room, which would be underneath one of the two bedrooms above. The apartment was empty and had no electricity, thus the hazy photos. The layout featured a large living room leading to a dining area with a back door and adjacent kitchen, then another doorway to a short hall between the two bedrooms & bath. The floor in the bedrooms was worn and made loud creaks as we walked. Carol snapped some photos with her phone as we explored, which came in handy a bit later on.

Living Room of Sherman Oaks Apartment

We spent about two hours investigating, trying to make contact with whatever was frightening tenants. As we moved from room to room, we left an extra camera running in the room we had just vacated. It was on this static camera that we caught the best evidence of the paranormal. We had moved into the living room and were sitting on the floor conducting an EVP session — you will hear us talking in the video. The static camera was in the far corner of the bedroom on a step ladder we had brought with us & a KII meter in the frame. What it recorded was a series of creaking footsteps walking across the room and several KII hits. It happened more than once, but the video is of the first time we heard it. Here’s a photo of the room, then the video, which was shot with a fisheye lens. Turn up your volume pretty loud to hear the creaking.

Bedroom Where We Heard Footsteps

After we checked out the room (nothing happened while we in it, only when we weren’t), the next odd thing happened. I noticed that a kitchen cabinet door was ajar. I was certain it had been closed when we walked through the apartment and Carol’s earlier photos proved this. We found were two holes in the wall at the corner of the cabinet. Did the door open due to a draft, or was this somehow connected to the hole in the laundry room? Is this an example of an object moving, which the former tenants reported? Reminded me of The Sixth Sense cabinet scene. Not definitive evidence, but interesting none the less.

Kitchen During Walkthrough

Cabinet Door Found Open

Holes in the Wall by Cabinet

While we were in the living room finishing up the EVP session — which had nothing on it — Carol told us to “shush.” We listened and heard a scratching coming from the ceiling. It didn’t move, just would pause for a couple minutes, then scratch a few more times. Tyler had noticed an attic access panel in the hall and suggested that I check it out. Not sure why I always get to go into the crawl spaces and attics, but I did it. If you’ve always wanted to see what’s up above your ceiling, watch the video. Note that there’s nothing paranormal found:

The footsteps we caught in the bedroom seem to verify at least part of the former tenants claims that the apartment was haunted. The cabinet door and the attic scratching could have rational explanations. We didn’t find a male voice on our audio recorder or witness anything else that could not be explained away. Is the apartment haunted? Possibly, since we can’t explain away the creaking footsteps. Lesson learned: if you’re apartment hunting in the future, you might want to ask the neighbors how long the prior tenants lived there and if there are any rumors of a haunting before leasing a new place.

One Response to “Sherman Oaks Apartment”

Where was this apartment? It looks familiar and I vaguely remember an apartment murder in Sherman Oaks many many years ago, but it’s impossible to say if it’s the same place without knowing roughly where…spooky nevertheless!